


Dyad

by sorion



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Character Study, F/M, Romance, TRoS Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:01:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21931879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sorion/pseuds/sorion
Summary: Neither one without the other. That is the nature of a dyad.(Set right afterThe Rise of Skywalkerends. Fix-it.)
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo
Comments: 10
Kudos: 80





	Dyad

Rey watched the suns rise, joined by a sandstorm in the distance that was rolling in her direction. The familiarity of hot sand and hotter suns ached, but it also had been a long time since she'd felt the calming security of routine. She knew the desert. Knew how to handle it. Knew how the pulse of time slowed to a gentle and ruthless rise and fall of dunes. And that was precisely what she needed if she wanted to focus on something more pressing.

"Time to find out who Rey Skywalker is," she murmured to herself. She got a questioning beep and laid the thought to rest for the time being.  
"Right then," she said, smiling at her rotund companion. "We'd better get inside before the storm hits."

BB8 beeped in agreement and rolled after her and into the house that Luke Skywalker had once – though somewhat unwillingly – called home.

She checked that her provisions that would get her through the set-up of the farm and a bit beyond were safely stored and locked in, protected from the elements. She switched on the little power generator she'd brought with her; much like with the provisions, it would do until she could get everything running.  
It wasn't her plan to set up the whole farm again, at least not beyond what she needed to get by. But it was early days, and she might yet find it in her to settle, after all. She would go where she was led, as she always had.

She fired up the stove to put together something to eat when BB8 beeped at a corner behind her.  
"You're still here," she noted.

"Where else would I be?"

She smiled and turned to look at her other companion. "Just making sure."

The apparition smiled back reassuringly. Neither of them knew what had caused Ben Solo's... whatever it was... to appear as a constant pulse in the force. He wasn't the clear spectre that Rey knew of others who had moved on into the force, and it wasn't like it used to be when their bond had tied them together. Ben only visibly appeared some of the time, though he was perceptible to Rey even when she couldn't see him. He wasn't just his own entity, either. It was... as if she was watching her own heartbeat on a monitor, a rhythm running through her and into his mirage.

"The... gaps between your appearances are getting shorter," she said, curious and either worried or hopeful or both.

"Hm," he agreed, looking at his hands, his eyes flickering to the droid studying him. "He notices me more often too."

"Can you see something, BB8?" The droid beeped, and Rey translated the beeps as, "He says he got used to the energy signature, and that it fluctuates less than it used to." Some more beeps. "And that the signature now always surrounds me."

Ben nodded slowly. "Interesting."

Rey crossed her arms. "Shouldn't you have more insight on this whole situation from wherever you are?" she asked him teasingly.

Ben raised an eyebrow. "Shouldn't you have every Jedi ever behind you, backing you up and answering questions?" When that managed to make her grin, he chuckled softly. "We don't even know when the last dyad in the force happened or why it would..." he gestured at the space between them, "... do this."

"Well," she responded practically, "now we have the time and peace and quiet to figure it out."

"We do," he confirmed calmly.

Rey studied his expression that sometimes looked as clear as if he were physically present. "I like you like this."

"What? Incorporeal?" he teased her.

She sniffed in amusement but otherwise continued to make her point. "At ease." She studied him some more. "Happy, I guess."

Ben shifted a bit, as much as his focus let him. "Unburdened?"

Rey smiled and nodded. "Yes." Her smile faded. "It pains me to think that you had to," she nodded at him, "move into a different plain of existence to achieve that."

Ben shook his head. "It wasn't that. It was just..." he shrugged, "... every voice I ever heard in my head was silenced."

Rey swallowed, knowing all too well what he was referring to. " _All_ your life?"

"As far as I remember. Yes." At her crestfallen expression, he smiled a bit. "It's not my pain that concerns me. It's the pain I caused."

"Ben..." she whispered, unable to find the right words.

"It's alright. My pain brought me here. To you."

Rey looked torn between wanting to be happy about that statement and saying something like, "Without a body."

He grinned boyishly at her. "Miss me?"

Rey huffed and crossed her arms.

He laughed joyfully and reached out for her with a barely-visible hand, cupping her cheek.

She automatically leaned into the energy that warmed her face, and her eyes fell closed. She could sense him more every day, the not-hand tingled and vibrated, humming with their joint power, essence, and story. His thumb caressed her cheekbone and... Wait. His _thumb_.  
Her eyes flew open.  
"I can feel that."

Ben blinked slowly, as if waking from a dream, and released her, looking at his hand with a frown of concentration. He wiggled his fingers and then focused on something behind Rey. Determined, he reached past her and for a lever of the stove. With a final burst of focus, he switched it on and grinned at her.

BB8 trilled loudly, rolling from side to side.

"Did you do that?" Rey asked Ben, staring at him, wide-eyed. "How did you do that?"

"I'm not sure, but I could feel this coming for a few days."

Rey's elation abated a bit. "I don't want you to overdo it, okay?"

Ben's lip twitched in amusement. "How do you suppose I could do that? I'm pure energy."

"I don't-" she stopped herself from finishing the sentence, swallowed, and averted her eyes. Then she finished the sentence anyway. "I don't want you to... I don't know... burn out and disappear."

"Rey," he tried to calm her and waited until she returned his gaze. "Whatever this is, it's getting stronger with every day I'm with you." He shrugged a little helplessly. "And what I am is with you."

Rey still couldn't quite shake the dread and the endless questions and turned to make that dinner she'd meant to start earlier. Sometimes, it was easier to talk to him when she didn't have to look at those soulful eyes.  
"I still remember you disappearing on me."

"I never went anywhere," he said from so close behind her, he radiated warmth down her back, and his words tickled her ear.

Rey breathed past the lump in her throat. "I know that now. I didn't then." She determinedly chopped some roots.

"It only took you a few hours to sense me again, though," he pointed out, now from a slightly less distracting distance.

Rey paused her chopping and smiled. "It only took that long because... you felt so much like a part of myself."

Ben moved to her side and patiently waited for her to turn to face him.  
"Because that's what I am. What we are."

When he leaned in, Rey closed her eyes and could almost feel his lips against hers. She smiled into the almost-kiss. It ended slowly, and she kept her eyes shut for a moment longer.  
"I do miss this," she admitted and blinked her eyes open to smirk at him.

He just beamed at her like he'd done the last time he'd kissed her in full possession of a body.

"But I don't miss your old broody serious face," she informed him.

He breathed a chuckle and whispered another feathery kiss onto her cheek. "I find I don't have much need for it, these days."

"It's easy with just the two of us."

He hummed in agreement, then he took two steps backwards and nodded at the stove. "Eat something. _You_ need to, after all," he pointed out wryly.

She returned to her cooking, rolling her eyes. "We can't all be _literally_ one with the force."

He just watched her work and eat and _live_ , all the while stretching out his senses for what surrounded them in their little world. He didn't understand what _made_ said little world, however. He didn't know what their bond was doing to them, how it was tying them together. He just knew that it'd been there for most of his life, the only counterpoint to the hatred that he'd been constantly infused with while growing up. He was almost certain that it had been there even before Rey was born, waiting for a body to host its energy.  
And now it was here. They both were.

***

By morning, the sandstorm had died down, and Rey set up a comm station and was trying it out by chatting with Finn.

Ben, meanwhile, was practicing pushing buttons (occasionally hers) and listened to their conversation. He was visible to Rey almost all the time now, which eased her mind and allowed him to see her more clearly as well.

He frowned a bit when Finn explained some details about early trade negotiations and government bodies. He knew well enough how Palpatine had come to power, and he remembered what had occupied his mother through most of his childhood.  
" _Politics_ ," he muttered darkly, relieved when the topic changed to his famous and infamous namesake who must have lived somewhere in the area that he and Rey now found themselves in.

Rey ended her call in high spirits and only then noticed Ben's darkened mood. "Are you alright?"

He nodded. "I hate politics," he just said, letting the statement speak for itself. Rey would understand.

She did and let it rest. Mostly. "Good thing you gave up on the supreme leader thing, then."

He raised an eyebrow at BB8 who came rolling into the room and pointed at Rey. "She thinks she's funny. She's not."

"He can't hear you," Rey helpfully let him know and grabbed a shawl to wrap around her head. "Come on," she told both of them. "I got coordinates from R2 about where Ben Kenobi used to live. I want to see it."

And because Ben couldn't deny her anything (and because he was curious himself) he followed her.

Since they didn't have any lighter speeders at hand, Rey piloted the Falcon to the coordinates of a ramshackle, ancient hut that had been pretty much cleared out for anything remotely valuable. All that was left were memories of people who were long dead.

Rey walked through the living area, absently touching the walls.

Ben sat his apparition in a nook that was carved out of the wall. "Luke told me this story so many times," he said, his mind years away. "The farm boy from nowhere who got dragged into a rebellion to become a jedi master." He smiled wryly at Rey.

Rey returned the smile. "When I told Luke I was from nowhere, he didn't believe me. Until I told him where I was from."

Ben laughed. It was such a beautiful laugh; Rey thought she could drown in it.

_"Look what the Jawas dragged in,"_ a voice said from the other side of the room, startling them both. _"The latest Skywalker."_

Rey turned to face the newcomer, and Ben stood immediately.

"That's Ben Kenobi," Ben said, staring at the ghost of someone he'd never met. The ghost in question only studied Rey.

"Master Kenobi," Rey greeted him politely.

_"Master Skywalker,"_ Kenobi returned the greeting with a tilted head and an amused little smile. _"You couldn't have chosen a less troublesome name for yourself?"_

Rey was rendered speechless, and Ben snorted behind her.

_"And you brought someone with you,"_ Kenobi noted, curious. His eyes wandered about the room but couldn't settle on what he was sensing.

"You can't see him?" Rey asked. She turned around to make sure that Ben was still visible to her. He was and shrugged.

_"I know who it must be,"_ Kenobi admitted, smirking slightly, _"but no, I can't see him."_ He moved through the room and circled where he could clearly sense something, even if he could not see it. He looked from _something_ to Rey in wonder.  
_"A living dyad,"_ he said reverently.

"Living?" Rey asked for confirmation. They were mostly sure that Ben wasn't dead, body or no body. An outside view was still definitely and reassuringly welcome...

Kenobi looked at her, startled. _"Well, he's certainly not dead, or I **could** see him."_

Rey released the breath she'd been holding, and even Ben seemed relieved, despite the fact that he had never before admitted to being worried about his, well, state of existence.

_"As far as the force is concerned,"_ Kenobi continued, _"you two are one person. One literally cannot exist without the other."_

"Then why doesn't he have a body?"

_"Bodies are merely vessels for the force,"_ Kenobi explained, circling Ben like a particularly fascinating specimen ready to dissect. _"The force flows through them, but they can also hold a certain amount of energy inside."_ He raised his eyebrow at her. _"I'm assuming he used a fair bit of that...?"_

Rey shrank back. She kept forgetting that part, having felt Ben's loss so keenly, she had a hard time reminding herself that he'd also held her dead body, if only for a short time.

_"Oh, his body is still there, no worries,"_ he quickly said when he noticed her unrest.

Rey looked up.

_"Or you wouldn't be here either."_ He circled Ben again, poking him with his glowing, blue finger and humming. _"He just can't quite access it yet..."_  
He poked him again where his chest would have been and took a step back, smiling.  
_"Well, hell~llo,"_ he said, happy with the result of whatever efforts he'd made. _"Aren't you a handsome fellow."_

Ben breathed out when Kenobi's spectre eyes indeed found his without fail now. He nodded in greeting. "Master Kenobi."

Kenobi studied him. _"The spitting image of both your parents,"_ he said, shaking his head. _"That **is** a bit disconcerting."_

"So," Rey spoke up, "he's alright?"

_"He's perfectly fine, as far as I can tell. Just recharging."_

Rey frowned at him. "What, like a battery?"

Kenobi gave her a look that one of his students in particular would have recognised immediately.  
_"I wouldn't have called it that, no,"_ he said wryly. _"Out of the two of you, you're currently the conducting body, channelling the force to him,"_ he explained. _"The bond you share lives on the balance between you, and he needs to replenish."_

"Like a battery."

Kenobi sighed long-sufferingly, making Ben laugh.

Rey just shrugged unapologetically.

_"Kids,"_ Kenobi complained. _"No, not like a battery. Like a near-unparalleled being in the force."_

" _Near_ -unparalleled?" Ben couldn't help but tease the ghost some more.

Kenobi wasn't inexperienced when it came to dealing with cheek, so Ben's quip didn't garner much of a reaction.  
_"No one of you without the other,"_ he reminded them. _"A dyad."_

Ben grinned. "We'd figured that bit out, already."

_"You got the smarts from your mother, no doubt."_

"My... dad would agree," Ben said, and the word only hurt a bit anymore.

Rey inched closer to him, and Kenobi's expression softened, both reading the mood easily.

_"Hm,"_ Kenobi made. _"Suddenly I'm not quite sure if it was just you exerting yourself that has you a bit... **floaty**."_ He poked Ben again, not even for a particular reason, but their essences touching produced a funny little light wiggle that amused him. _"Perhaps the wounds from the hooks that were buried in your mind and flesh need more time to heal. Allow yourself that time."_

Ben half shrugged, unconcerned. "I'm in no hurry."

Kenobi turned to look at Rey. _"What about you then, young Skywalker?"_

Rey shifted uncomfortably. "What about me?"

_"Bit more impatient, are you?"_

Rey took a deep breath and refused to protest. "A bit."

_"You definitely picked the right name."_ Kenobi's eyes glittered in amusement, and he stepped closer to her. _"Rest easy, Rey Skywalker."_

Rey smiled. She knew she could do that. Certainty came to her easily, these days, even if she kept asking questions. If she listened to the force, there were no worries.  
"Yes, Master Kenobi."

Then the ghost was gone.

"Mystical buggers, the lot of them," Ben complained, only joking a little.

***

Their days continued in a similar vein (without the appearance of more force ghosts). Within a few weeks, Rey had replaced and fixed enough of the farm for two people to survive in the scarce lands for quite some time. Of course, the farm was a far cry from the kind that would need extra hands to keep it running. Ben would lend a hand whenever he was physically able, and while BB8 still couldn't quite see him, he did tend to roll around him, most of the time.

They visited their neighbours and the surrounding towns, Rey being the proud owner of a rusty old speeder she could tinker with after one such visit.  
Ben often had stories to tell about the new places. Stories that he'd only ever heard about but that brought dirty old streets, bars, and spaceports to life. Stories about Ben's father and uncle meeting and being dragged into an adventure.  
Rey complemented those stories with her own life and escape from Jakku.

She elaborated on that particular story while they were speeding from Mos Eisley back to their home, and Ben soaked it in, probably looking more like the boy who'd first heard tall tales of his family than the grown man he now was.

"You were a lot like Luke," he told her. "I'm not surprised he liked you so much."

"I don't know. I think I mostly annoyed him at first," she replied, gleefully unbothered by that fact.

"Yes, well. We often don't like who we used to be."

*

They were also training together – to the extent that was possible, which mostly meant meditation. And in that state, the dyad _sang_ between them, cradling them in perfect balance.

During Rey's exercises with her sabre, Ben offered helpful commentary and occasionally (and unapologetically) threw obstacles in her way.

He barely held back a laugh when she stumbled over one of the rocks she suddenly found in her way.

"You!" she barked and pointed her bright, yellow sabre at him. "I can't _wait_ for you to have a body again, so I can _kick your ass_!"

Now he did laugh.

***

Even in the short time they'd been there, Rey soon had the reputation of someone who could _fix_ things, so it didn't take long for the first neighbour to cautiously seek her out.  
It was the very same woman whom she'd first met upon arrival.

Rey brought her into her makeshift workshop and expertly took apart the power converter that was being a bother.

And, because it was a universal neighbourly law that one be helpful, seeking help, and – above all – be nosey, the first question came soon.

"Won't you need help around the house?" the woman asked. "Beautiful young woman like yourself, all on your own..."

Rey was too distracted to pick up the numerous neighbourly undertones in that question or even think of her answer in detail before she simply said, "My husband will be here soon. Won't be long now."

"Oh, how wonderful!" the woman enthused, trying not to show her disappointment that her plan to set up the new neighbour with her nephew was being thwarted.

Rey suddenly froze for a second when her own words sank in, her eyes finding Ben hovering in a corner, equally dumbfounded.  
Rey smiled. "It is, isn't it?" she agreed with her neighbour's assessment and continued her work.

"A good, strong man, then, yes?"

"Oh, yes," Rey said, smirking before she said what she was thinking. "Built like a brickhouse." (Ben spluttered in his corner.) She leaned closer conspiratorially. "Moves like a dancer."

"Rey!" Ben protested, while their neighbour giggled, delighted.

Rey grinned, pointedly ignoring the protests from mostly unseen parties. She was sure that he would have blushed, had he been corporeal.  
She handed the converter back to its owner.  
"Here you are. It was just clogged." Come to think of it, the converter had quite possibly been an excuse to sound the new neighbour for gossip. But then, interaction was as important as working machinery, even in deserts.

Rey accepted the stew her neighbour had brought in return for help and waved her goodbye.

Ben appeared beside her. "Husband?"

Rey hesitated, keeping her eyes where her neighbour had disappeared. "What else could you be to me?" she whispered, finally daring to meet his gaze.

Ben smiled, his fingers whispering over her cheek. "Yours," he said. "One with the force and one without it. Just yours."

"Just yours," Rey agreed.

***

Ben grew stronger every day, though neither he nor Rey realised it for the longest time. It was a gradual process, and it didn't affect their connection – which kept them afloat as two trays of the same scale – at all.

That there might have been something changing first occurred to them during one of Rey's calls with Finn. They were laughing about one thing or other when Finn suddenly frowned at something over her shoulder.

"Who is that?"

"Who?" Rey asked, turning around to see for herself. Ben had just walked past, but nobody else was in the house aside from their faithful droid.

Not in the line of sight of Finn, Ben pointed at himself and nodded at the screen, torn between being hopeful and, _'Oh, shit, he saw me!'_

Rey frantically tried to think of an excuse, but Finn took the decision from her.

"Probably nothing," he waved off, uncertain whether he should trust the words he was speaking or his eyes. "Just a shadow." He chuckled nervously. "Did almost look like a person, though."

"You know deserts," Rey played along. "The wind blows around all kinds of things that are throwing shadows."

"Double-check your doors, yeah?"

"Always."

After they'd finished their call, Rey turned towards Ben  
"Are you sure he saw you?"

Ben nodded. "He did. Looked straight at me."

They both smiled giddily.

"We'll have to be more careful from now on," Rey cautioned.

Ben nodded. "BB8 hasn't seen me yet, though."

"No, but he does know how to look for your energy signature, and some other droids usually notice _something_ , if not a person."

"I guess I'm under house arrest for the foreseeable future now." He eyed the sand-blown walls suspiciously.

Rey shrugged, unconcerned. "I've nowhere to be, and there's enough to be done around here."

Ben looked like he wanted to protest that Rey was confining herself along with him but then just smiled.  
"There is," he agreed.

***

It would only be a few days until the next breakthrough, and they once more passed the time with tinkering, training, and talking. A lot of talking. They talked about their respective pasts and where they aligned; they talked about the things they'd learned and wanted to teach each other; they talked about their fears and hopes, about their future. And every word was a confirmation of what their souls already knew about each other.

The newest revelation came in the form of BB8 who interrupted their training session, trilling and spinning around Ben excitedly.

"He can see you!" Rey translated, catching the droid's excitement.

"I got that," Ben said, grinning.

"Wait." Rey hunched down next to their little friend. "Can you see Ben a person or just a shape or something?" When BB8 confirmed the former, Rey stood, facing Ben. "Huh." She reached out to him. "That's odd. You don't feel any different to me..."

"Probably because I'm part of you," Ben mused, focussing on the gossamer of her touch.

"Do you feel more _here_?"

"Compared to the beginning? I guess. But we can't exactly measure spectral presences."

Rey's fingers trailed along an almost-there arm. "I'm looking forward to introducing you to our neighbours."

That startled a chuckle out of Ben. "I thought it was kicking my ass."

"That too." And there were other things too, of course. Her eyes often lingered on his lips, as they did right in that moment.

Ben caught her eyes when they met his. "I'm looking forward to that too." Whether he was talking about the kicking his ass or other things, he didn't elaborate.

Rey saved such thoughts for when they would become relevant and tilted her head at BB8.  
"You'll let us know when you notice anything else, right?"

She received a beep in reply that was the droid equivalent of a salute.

*

That evening, Ben sat with her as she was about to fall asleep, as they had done since their arrival on Tatooine. His fingers were a breath of a touch through her hair, and she leaned into it, soaking up the closeness.

"I thank the force every day for bringing you to me, Ben," she murmured, speaking of their crossed paths as well as the significance that the name held.

"I thank the force every day that there was still a Ben left to come to you."

Rey smiled sleepily. "He was always there."

Ben nodded thoughtfully. "He was. But there weren't a lot of people who still thought that, myself included."

"Your mother did."

Ben hummed in agreement. "And my dad," he said, barely audible. "Or at least what was left of him inside me." He'd told Rey the story of Han Solo appearing to him in his death, and she had listened without judgement.

"Do you think it was him? Or your imagination?" Rey asked.

Ben breathed out shudderingly. "There's a question," he said and then shrugged. "Maybe a bit of both."

"I believe that too," Rey said, her eyes closing.

And Ben believed her.

He leaned closer to kiss her forehead, as he did every night.  
"Sleep well, sweetheart."

She sighed with a smile.

*

When Rey woke up, she was first aware of the warmth surrounding her and keeping out the cold desert night.  
It took no longer than one more heartbeat for her to realise that she wasn't just warm. She was being held. Physically.

She gasped, and her eyes widened. There was a strong arm wrapped around her middle and a solid body pressed securely against her back. She turned around in the embrace, and there was Ben, fast asleep, his chest rising and falling with each breath his body took. As if he'd always been there.  
Her vision blurred, and she reached a careful hand to cup his cheek. His warm, soft cheek that now knew how to smile at her.

"Ben," she whispered and had to suppress giggle when his nose twitched. "Ben, you're asleep," she pointed out when he stirred. It was a silly thing to point out, but he hadn't been asleep in quite some time, after all.

"'M not 'sleep," he mumbled. "Don't sleep."

This time, an effervescently joyful giggle did break free. She leaned forward to capture the lips she'd dreamed of in a kiss.

He returned it, still mostly asleep... until he wasn't and gasped, his eyes flying open.  
"Rey," was the first word his lips consciously spoke.

One tear managed to escape Rey's eyes, and her smile was beaming.  
"Good morning," she said.

His smile was as radiant as hers, and his breathing accelerated to soak up all the feelings rushing through him. He framed her face with both his hands, marvelling at skin meeting skin.  
"I was asleep," he burst out through his own tears and laughter. He kissed her again, and she wrapped her arms around him enthusiastically.

They kissed for a long time, basking in the feel of their bodies aligning and being wonderfully, physically _there_.  
Neither believed they would ever tire of feeling and tasting and loving.

When the kiss ended, they stayed close, wrapped in each other, getting lost in each other's eyes.  
Ben brushed his nose against hers, making them both breathe another laugh. He kissed her again before once more studying her face.

"Good morning," he said as if Tatooine's two suns would rise from the sheer happiness of their moment.

And they did.

**End**

Also, for shits and giggles ;)

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas and such ;)
> 
> P.S. If you liked my writing, please be on the lookout for [my novels](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14553988.Ursula_Katherine_Spiller) ♥  
> My fandom tumblr is [here](https://sorion.tumblr.com) :)


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